Increasingly in today's society, a need exists for individuals to “stay in touch,” whether it is with business contacts, co-workers, friends, or family members. Primary avenues for individuals to stay in touch are the telecommunications networks, both wireline and wireless. These telecommunication methods have certain drawbacks, however. Significantly, if an individual is not sufficiently proximate to their telecommunication device, the individual cannot answer an incoming call before it stops ringing, in which case the call often goes unanswered. The advent of answering machines and voice messaging systems has ameliorated this problem, but even these technological advancements are not acceptable for all situations.
Individuals who do utilize mobile wireless telecommunications devices and wireline telecommunications devices typically have separate directory numbers for each device. However, being associated with multiple directory numbers has certain drawbacks. In particular, potential callers generally have difficulty remembering or otherwise keeping up with somebody's mobile directory numbers and wireless directory numbers, resulting in the potential caller calling the one directory number he or she remembers and not trying to contact the individual at any of the other directory numbers. If the individual is away from the telecommunications device associated with the called directory number, then the call is missed even though the individual may be proximate to another telecommunications device associated with a different directory number previously provided to the potential caller.
One known solution to these problems is the so-called “simultaneous ring” telephone service. According to the typical simultaneous ring service, when a called party receives an incoming call directed to their wireline telephone, telephone devices associated with the wireline telephone ring simultaneously, allowing the called party to answer the most accessible phone. For example, a person may have the simultaneous ring service established for her home telephone, such that whenever a calling party calls her at home, not only does her home telephone ring, but her wireless telephone also rings. If the wireless telephone is answered first, the incoming call is connected with the wireless telephone, and the ringing to her home telephone is discontinued, whereby the call is connected only to the wireless telephone, and the home telephone cannot be connected with the incoming call after the connection of the incoming call with the wireless telephone. Thus, a person proximate to the home phone who wants to join the call occurring between the calling party and the person at the wireless telephone is prohibited from doing so based on the typical simultaneous ring service.
Accordingly, there exits a need for a simultaneous ring service that can simultaneously ring any number of associated telecommunications devices, and once one of the telecommunication devices is answered, allow a different associated telecommunication device to join in the call with the calling party and the answered telecommunication device.